In those filings, the Milton Hershey School and the Hershey Trust Co. said that Reese was being vindictive because he was not reelected to the charity's boards in February and that the proper agency to investigate his claims was the Attorney General's Office.
The Hershey organization includes the candy company, the Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Co., and the Hershey Trust, which operates and finances the Hershey School, the nation's largest residential school for impoverished children. The $7.5 billion Hershey charity was founded by chocolate king Milton Hershey and his wife, Catherine.
The Hershey Trust and the school also said in the court filings that Reese did not have legal standing to take his claims to court and that he participated in the financial decisions he was now criticizing, including those over directors fees.
The legal fight over Reese's petition was shaping up to be hugely expensive for Reese personally, as well as the charity.
Hundreds of pages of documents have been filed in the last week, and 16 lawyers are named in the documents as representing the trust or its leaders. Among the lawyers representing the charity are Arthur Makadon, the chairman of the politically connected Ballard Spahr L.L.P. firm in Philadelphia, and John Estey, a chief of staff for former Gov. Ed Rendell, who also is with Ballard Spahr.
Reese's attorneys had been Margaret E.W. Sager and Bradley D. Terebelo of Heckscher, Teillon, Terrill & Sager P.C. in West Conshohocken, a boutique law firm that deals with trusts.
